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June 15, 2025 9:09 am
A listener shares her grandfather's funny saying. It's a series of logical statements, but when pronounced very quickly it can sound like some sort of Latin incantation: In mud eels are / In clay none are / In pine tar is / In oak none is. In The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Bookshop|Amazon), folklorists Iona and Peter Opie show that there are lots of versions of this saying — including one in a medical manuscript from 500 years ago! Two other lines that sometimes accompany this saying are Goat eat ivy / Mare eat oats, the inspiration for the 1940s novelty song "Mairzy Doats." This is part of a complete episode.